Handheld cameras tend to suffer from movement as a user finds it difficult to keep a camera steady over time. For example, a handheld camera used during a wedding or sporting event may be suggested to movement as the hand, of the individual holding the camera for a period of time, moves As a result, camera motion may cause undesired shaking and/or motion as images are captured in a sequence, e.g., a video sequence generated from sequentially captured images.
In addition to motion, handheld cameras are often used in a wide variety of environments including family events such as weddings, where lighting conditions may suddenly change, e.g. due to the flash of a nearby camera or for some other reason such as a strobe light flashing during a reception. In such a situation, a portion of a scene area subject to an unexpected flash may be saturated during one image capture time period due while other portions which were unaffected by the flash may still be usable. In order to reduce camera motion a mechanical stabilization system may be employed and/or a camera may be supported in a fixed camera mount or a camera rig intended to perform mechanical stabilization functions.
While mechanical stabilization techniques offer some benefits, they are not practical for many applications where a user seeks to be able to use a handheld camera to quickly take a short video sequence where there may not be time or space to set up a camera tripod or use an camera stabilization mount.
In order to control for lighting conditions, other users of cameras may be restricted from using a flash and/or lighting in an environment can be controlled by prohibiting the use of strobe lights. Unfortunately, in the case of a handheld camera user, e.g., a guest at a wedding reception, the user may have not control over the use of flashes by others at the event and/or the use of strobe lights. In such cases, strobes and/or flashes may cause images of a scene area to have some portions saturated in images but not in others. A rapid change in light conditions can result in an uncomfortable video sequence with the light levels changing unexpectedly and/or with portions of the image being saturated from one image capture period to the next due to the presence of strobe lights or flashes.
It would be desirable if image stabilization techniques could be developed which could address the problems related to camera motion and/or lighting conditions outside the camera operators control which may result in portions of a scene area of interest not being captured due to motion or portions of a sensor being saturated, e.g., due to a flash or strobe light being present in the environment.